Wish they would farking do that where I live. Or at least put some farking sensors in the road so the light at the intersection I'm approaching stops turning red to allow the nonexistent cross traffic to pass.

StrangeQ:Wish they would farking do that where I live. Or at least put some farking sensors in the road so the light at the intersection I'm approaching stops turning red to allow the nonexistent cross traffic to pass.

The sensors are only part of the job.

Eventually the sensors start telling the light that a group of nuns and nursery schoolers want to use the crosswalk every two minutes all night long, seven days a week, so all traffic in every direction has to be stopped for 90 seconds while they cross.

Biatch to the DOT about it and they get back to you eight months later with "sorry, we don't see any problem here".

When I lived in the OC, it seemed like many of the high speed stretches were intentionally configured to make drivers stop every mile. I assume the logic was to keep people from speeding but it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to see that it would make more sense to configure the lights to be green for people travelling at the speed limit. If they speed, the next light would be red, slowing them down. Instead, what they set up only allowed speeders to hit a series of greens, racing to get to the next light before it turned red.

Of course, maybe that was their intention. Most of the main arteries were posted at 45-50 with one at 65. "They" seem to like people to move fast.

Officials said the completion of this project will increase travel speeds by 16 percent and reduces travel times by 12 percent.-=-And then it becomes controlled by the oil companies who decide they need an extra topping on the sweet profits every now and then. A vote not going their way? They'll just adjust the lights a tad below the speed limit to annoy everyone.

Synchronized with what??? Northbound, southbound, whatever. Does this mean that road sensors are disabled, or simply that synchronization takes over when vehicles aren't detected so that skateboarders don't have to run red lights?

I recall the left turn traffic sensor from PCH Northbound onto Seal Bach Blvd, which would not detect a motorcycle, and that left turn signal would never change from red unless a vehicle was detected. Many times I waited until there was no car in sight, sometimes for quite a while, before I went ahead and made my left turn. This was in the late 1980's but I severely doubt that it has changed. Of course, that's Orange County, not L.A. proper, but synchronizing lights in L.A. to me means synchronizing the lights in the metro area; otherwise it's a useless exercise.

I know, right? Like, I took the 101 to the 134 through Glendale? Then I cut across the 210 through Pasadena all the way to the 57 through San Dimas? Then somehow I was on the 71 and then the 60 and then the 15 and wound up at a Bob's Big Boy in Norco?

sardonicobserver:Synchronized with what??? Northbound, southbound, whatever. Does this mean that road sensors are disabled, or simply that synchronization takes over when vehicles aren't detected so that skateboarders don't have to run red lights?

I recall the left turn traffic sensor from PCH Northbound onto Seal Bach Blvd, which would not detect a motorcycle, and that left turn signal would never change from red unless a vehicle was detected. Many times I waited until there was no car in sight, sometimes for quite a while, before I went ahead and made my left turn. This was in the late 1980's but I severely doubt that it has changed. Of course, that's Orange County, not L.A. proper, but synchronizing lights in L.A. to me means synchronizing the lights in the metro area; otherwise it's a useless exercise.

Synchronized is not the right word. The lights will be timed so that if you miss one, you won't miss any more so long as you travel the indicated speed limit between lights. They had these along a stretch in Wichita when I was a kid and they were pretty cool. I wish they'd get them around here. There are days when I literally miss EVERY farkING light on the way to work. Turns a 10 minute commute into 20.

The 1984 Olympics were a boon to the LA Basin, not financially as the tourists were scared off, but the state finally re-labeled the highways with numbers and directions (NSEW). Some highways had 4-5 names before depending on the section and direction.

Stoker:And then it becomes controlled by the oil companies who decide they need an extra topping on the sweet profits every now and then. A vote not going their way? They'll just adjust the lights a tad below the speed limit to annoy everyone.

And then it becomes controlled by the oil companies who decide they need an extra topping on the sweet profits every now and then. A vote not going their way? They'll just adjust the lights a tad below the speed limit to annoy everyone.

Toll road companies do this more than oil companies. Privately funded toll roads have noncompete agreements designed to make the toll road better than free roads. There is a practical limit to how good roads can be. There is no practical limit to how bad a road can be. It is cheaper to sabotage free roads than improve toll roads. Denver got new traffic lights and lower speed limits to force people onto 470. Texas got lower speed limits on free roads. Orange County got restrictions on what could be built near 91.

There is also a theory, and I have not looked into it to verify, that road construction companies like road obstruction projects because traffic lights, humps, bumps, lumps, chicanes, and anything other than just a new coat of pavement earns them a lot more money.

Yeah, I'm calling BS. I live in northwest Los Angeles. There are at least two lights whose timers aren't synced because they recently repaved the road (note: NOT the section with the asphalt folded so badly it will take out a control arm if you roll over it too fast, meaning more than 10mph). The lights are constantly cycling because they haven't recalibrated the sensors. And there's one street they've been trying to sync properly forever, that they got fixed so you could drive for fifteen minutes on a residential street without stopping, and now have it farked to where you hit at least three red lights.

*sigh* I don't know what engineers they have working on this, but they aren't worth their diplomas.

natazha:The 1984 Olympics were a boon to the LA Basin, not financially as the tourists were scared off, but the state finally re-labeled the highways with numbers and directions (NSEW). Some highways had 4-5 names before depending on the section and direction.

It's too bad, I always thought it was more fun to be driving north, east, and south at the same time according to the shields, while actually pointed mostly west. Little quirks of the highway system like that are the best.

majestic:sardonicobserver: Synchronized with what??? Northbound, southbound, whatever. Does this mean that road sensors are disabled, or simply that synchronization takes over when vehicles aren't detected so that skateboarders don't have to run red lights?

I recall the left turn traffic sensor from PCH Northbound onto Seal Bach Blvd, which would not detect a motorcycle, and that left turn signal would never change from red unless a vehicle was detected. Many times I waited until there was no car in sight, sometimes for quite a while, before I went ahead and made my left turn. This was in the late 1980's but I severely doubt that it has changed. Of course, that's Orange County, not L.A. proper, but synchronizing lights in L.A. to me means synchronizing the lights in the metro area; otherwise it's a useless exercise.

Synchronized is not the right word. The lights will be timed so that if you miss one, you won't miss any more so long as you travel the indicated speed limit between lights. They had these along a stretch in Wichita when I was a kid and they were pretty cool. I wish they'd get them around here. There are days when I literally miss EVERY farkING light on the way to work. Turns a 10 minute commute into 20.

In 89-90 in Chico Ca, the main drag was timed like this, but you had to go 23 MPH. If you (or anyone) went any faster then they turned red. :/

Seige101:Gawdzila: soopey: Oh joy. Single point of failures in large control systems are fun.

What makes you think there's a single failure point?

Because redundancy costs money and government only goes for the lowest bid

Wow, what nonspecific and assumptive reasoning. I really don't think you know anything about how this system works, nor how much redundancy they do or don't have.

Just as an example of one way in which your assumptions are completely wrong-headed, one of the ways that the Obama administration is seeking to make the government more monetarily efficient is by intelligent use of resources in order to REDUCE the extreme redundancy that they already have (check out the government IT reforms). So your overly broad and unsupported criticism of the system is pretty much BS.